Sleep disorders are more common than we realize. Because most people are not familiar with the signs of sleep disorders, they often suffer from their disorder or they are misdiagnosed. This research paper focuses on three main sleep disorders: Narcolepsy, Insomnia, and Obstructive Sleep Apnea. For information, I turned to the World Wide Web. I was looking for clear, concise data on which to build the foundation of my research paper. There were countless information sources that support sleeping disorders and how to treat them. I used the information I found on four different websites to further describe the sleep disorders narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, and insomnia.

Sleep Disorders: Narcolepsy, Insomnia, Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Sleep disorders are very common among men and women around the country. Unfortunately, many do not realize the symptoms of a sleep disorder. “At least forty million Americans each year suffer from chronic, long-term sleep disorders, and an additional twenty million experience occasional sleeping problems.” (Ninds) This paper focuses on sleep and three main sleep disorders: narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, and insomnia. Additionally, this paper will discuss the side affects and treatments for each.

How much sleep our bodies need depends on many dynamics, especially age, that are unique to each person. The typical adult needs only seven to eight hours sleep while children and teens tend to need more. In a deep state of sleep, growth hormones are released into the bodies of adolescences. Babies need long periods of sleep to enhance proper brain development. If you are sleep deprived, you will most likely need extra sleep time to catch up on your sleep debt. Having a sleep debt tends to impair judgment, rationality, and other sensory functions.

Why do we sleep? “Sleep appears necessary for our nervous systems to work properly.” (Ninds) Sleep deprivation can reduce your ability to concentrate and increase the likelihood of delirium and general irritability. While you are sleeping, your brain is busy at work repairing and replenishing your body. You may be resting but your brain is not, it is eternally awake and sending message via neurotransmitters to nearly every part of your body.

There are five stages of sleep: Stages one through four and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. “These stages progress in a cycle from stage one to REM sleep, then the cycle starts over again with stage one.” (Ninds) Each cycle lasts about ninety minutes. Stage one is a light sleep in which you may be easily awakened. As each stage progresses, sleep becomes deeper and it is harder to be awakened. The most important sleep is deep REM sleep. During REM sleep our breathing becomes quicker and uneven. Our eyes move or twitch behind the eye lids while our entire body becomes briefly paralyzed. REM sleep usually occurs near the end of the sleep cycle and is typically the stage in which we begin to dream.

Our eating habits and the medications we ingest, whether prescribed or over the counter, often have an overwhelming effect on how well we sleep or do not sleep. Caffeine, dietary supplements, and other medication can cause us not to reach REM sleep or not to sleep at all. “Heavy smokers often sleep very lightly and have reduced amounts o REM sleep.” (Ninds) Missing large amounts of REM sleep can leave us feeling drowsy or tired. Insomnia

Now that we know a little more about sleep we can explore its disorders. The most common of all sleep disorders is insomnia. “Insomnia, which is Latin for "no sleep," is the inability to fall asleep or remain asleep.” (Sleep Foundation) Women tend to be affected by insomnia more than men. While insomnia can be considered a stand-alone disorder, it is commonly caused by some other abnormality within the body. This sleep...

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...Obstructivesleepapnea (OSA) is a sleepdisorder that if left untreated can result in death. According to a recent journal article, “up to 93% of women and 82% of men may have undiagnosed moderate to severe OSA” (Park MD, Ramar MD, Olson MD, 2011, p. 549). OSA is characterized by pauses in breathing or shallow breathing during sleep. These are called apneas and hypopneas. A recent journal article published by the Mayo Clinic defined OSA as “a disorder in which a person frequently stops breathing during his or her sleep.” “It results from an obstruction of the upper airway during sleep that occurs because of inadequate motor tone of the tongue and/or airway dilator muscles” (Park MD, Ramar MD, Olson MD, 2011, p. 549). There are many reasons this can occur. Typically, all of the muscles in the body become relaxed during sleep. This includes the muscles that help keep the airway open and allow air to flow into the lungs. Normally, the upper throat still remains open enough to let air pass. However, some people have narrower airways. When the muscles in the upper throat relax during sleep, breathing can stop for a period of time and there is a decrease in oxygen saturation and arousals from sleep. The other factors that may play a part in this as well are, shorter lower jaw, certain...

...Chapter 20: SleepDisorders
•Sleep is a major function of daily living and mental health.
•The average adult should get 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily.
•However, many people are in the habit of frequently cutting back on sleep to meet other social needs.
•The most common and major consequence of sleep loss is excessive sleepiness.
•Sleep deprivation is another consequence ofsleep loss that complicates health, safety, and quality of life for individuals.
•Prolonged sleep deprivation can produce psychomotor impairments equivalent to excessive alcohol consumption symptoms.
•Sleep is a neurological process that involves interaction between the central nervous system and the environment.
•The normal sleep cycle is divided into two states: NREM (non-rapid eye movement) &amp; REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
* NREM makes up for the majority of sleep cycle. It is broken down into for stages ranging from attributes of psychomotor activities of the body.
* Stage 1
* Stage2
* Stage3
* Stage4
* HOWEVER, REM is the longest sleep PERIOD. This stage of the sleep cycle is the longest in time wise and length.
*
•Structural organization of NREM and REM sleep is known as sleep architecture &amp; is...

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The Not So Silent Killer
Sleepapnea is a serious, potentially life-threatening condition that is far more common than generally understood. First described in 1965, sleepapnea is a breathing disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. It owes its name to a Greek word, apnea, meaning “want of breath.” There are two types of sleepapnea: central and obstructive. Central sleepapnea, which is less common, occurs when the brain fails to send the appropriate signals to the breathing muscles to initiate respirations. Obstructivesleepapnea is far more common and occurs when air cannot flow into or out of the person’s nose or mouth although efforts to breathe continue. Early recognition and treatment of sleepapnea is important because it may be associated with irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.
Sleepapnea occurs in all age groups and both sexes but is more common in men, under diagnosed in women and possibly young African Americans. It has been estimated that as many as 18 million Americans have sleepapnea. Four percent of middle-aged men and 2 percent of middle-aged women have sleepapnea...

...SLEEPAPNEA
What is SleepApnea?
The Greek word "apnea" literally means "without breath." There are three types of sleepapnea: obstructive, central, and mixed; of the three, ObstructiveSleepApnea (OSA) is the most common. Despite the difference in the root cause of each type, in all three, people with untreated sleepapnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer.
Obstructivesleepapnea is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. In central sleepapnea, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe. Mixed sleepapnea is a combination of the two. With each apnea event, the brain briefly awakes sleepapnea victims from sleep in order for them to resume breathing, therefore sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality.
Sleepapnea is very common and affects more than twelve million Americans. Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty,...

...Definition of the Disease
Sleepapnea is known as a sleepdisorder characterized by pauses in breathing or episodes of very low breathing during sleep. Apnea is every pause in breathing and it usually lasts for at least 10 seconds and sometimes even minutes. Apnea pauses can occur 5-30 times in an hour. The disease is diagnosed with a sleep study or polysomnogram, which is an overnight sleep test. It occurs mainly in three forms obstructive, central and mixed or complex sleepapnea, which is a combination of obstructive or central. While in central sleepapnea (CSA) breathing is interrupted by lacking a respiratory effort, obstructivesleepapnea (OSA) occurs when the breathing procedure is interrupted by a physical block to airflow accompanied by snoring. Even with the difficulties in breathing associated with this disease, the victim is not aware of breathing difficulties. In fact, others who witness the victim as he/she sleeps recognize it. In most cases, the symptoms go for years before identification, a time in which the sufferer becomes accustomed to daytime sleepiness and fatigue as well as significant sleep disturbance levels. The most known symptoms of sleep...

...“Understanding Sleep Problems”
More then half of American’s experience a sleep problem at some time in their life. Weather it is stress-induced insomnia, poor sleep hygiene, or a poor environment. The most common form of sleeping problem would be insomnia. Insomnia is the inability of a person to fall asleep, stay asleep, or fall back asleep upon waking. People that have insomnia often complain about impairments of attention, memory, ability to work and function. Insomnia can also affect one’s mood and cause anxiety. Insomnia can last anywhere from 2-3 weeks (short-term) to long periods of time (chronic). There are several physical, social, and mental health issues that can effect sleep patterns and cause insomnia including, but not limited to: anxiety disorders, medical conditions, depression, stress, bipolar disorders, restless leg syndrome, etc. Sleep habits and hygiene can help reduce our susceptibility to sleepinsomnia. Going to bed at different times, napping, poor sleep environment, working night shifts, lack of exercise, etc. are all factors that can cause insomnia. As far as treatment and signs of this disorder go, sleep studies can be conducted to look at your symptoms, which include...

...SleepDisordersSleepdisorders are a part of more than 40 million American's lives.
It is estimated that 60 percent of adults have sleep problems at least a few nights a week and as a result more than 40 percent of adults experience mild to severe daytime sleepiness. Children also experience sleep troubles, with 69 percent of kids presenting problems several nights a week.
There are many variations of sleepdisorders, including parasomnias.
A parasomnia is a disturbance in the sleep cycle that is characterized by physiological states and behaviors usually only presented in the waking state. Parasomnias have been noted as more frequent in children than adults and are often associated with stress and depression in addition to biological factors. Many parasomnias can have serious consequences; the sleeper can potentially injure a bedmate or themselves, prevent others from sleeping, and even wake themselves up. Examples of parasomnias include sleepwalking, sleep terrors, and sleeptalking.
Sleepwalking, or somnambulism, happens during Stage 4 sleep and is a partial arousal in which the person is not in full consciousness. A sleepwalker might roam the building, change clothes, eat and even go to the bathroom. On rare occasions it has been reported that a sleepwalker drove during sleep. After...